Placing Ballparks in the Sweep of History

Published: October 3, 1993

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The Westport author also chronicles the three different locations of the Polo Grounds, the first of which actually was used for polo, and scores of other ballparks and ball grounds. "There's a difference," he pointed out. "In the early days, there were no seats -- no grandstand, no fence, nothing. Just a field on which to play. And admission in the early days was about a dime."

Such were the fields on which the three Connecticut teams played. The first two teams, the Middletown Mansfields and the New Haven Elm Citys, played in the National Association, the first big league, which lasted from 1871 through 1875 and was the precursor of the National League.

The third team, the Hartford Dark Blues, played in the National Association in 1874 and 1875, and, as one of the eight charter members, in the National League in 1876 and 1877. The Mansfields were named for a prominent Middletown family.

The team, which included Orator Jim O'Rourke of Bridgeport, who later graduated from Yale Law School and wound up in the Baseball Hall of Fame, finished ninth in an 11-team league with a 5-19 record while playing its home games at the Fort Hill Grounds, which would be south of the center of town, near where the Connecticut Valley Hospital now stands.

The Hartford Dark Blues, the state's first big league team, played their home games -- until they switched to Brooklyn because of poor attendance -- at the Hartford Base Ball Grounds in what is now Colt Park near the Connecticut River. "There were three trees in the outfield which provided quite an obstacle to the outfielders," Mr. Gershman said, who obtained much of his information about old ballparks and ball grounds from libraries and historical societies, along with the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. and The Sporting News.

The president of the Hartford team was Morgan G. Bulkeley, a Hartford businessman who also served as Governor from 1889 to 1893 and United States Senator from 1905 to 1911. Bulkeley was also the first president of the National League and, mainly for that reason, eventually was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. One of the stars of the 1875 and 1876 Hartford teams, Candy Cummings, also was elected to the Hall of Fame, primarily because he said he invented the curve ball in 1866 (at a time when pitchers threw underhanded).

The New Haven Elm Citys, who folded before the 1875 season ended, played in the vicinity of what is now Edgewood Park, across the West River from the Yale Bowl. That is less than a mile from where the new Eastern League team, the New Haven Ravens, is scheduled to play at Yale Field starting next season. No Domes for a Traditionalist

A traditionalist, Mr. Gershman likes neither artificial turf nor domes. Indeed, he has gone to only one stadium with artificial turf. "I went to a Phillies' game at the Vet," Veterans Memorial Stadium in Philadelphia, "but I only stayed for 20 minutes," he said. "I hated it. I've never been in a domed stadium, and I doubt if I'll ever be in one. They're antithetical to what I believe in."

He also decries the tendency to establish similar dimensions at modern ballparks.

"Willie Mays' great catch of Vic Wertz's drive in the 1954 World Series at the Polo Grounds couldn't happen today because no park had as much space in center field as the Polo Grounds," he pointed out. "There's too much conformity."

Mr. Gershman picks Fenway Park as "the best park left," but for "the best park ever" he unhesitatingly picks Ebbets Field. "If it wasn't the best, and I think it was, it was certainly the best loved," Mr. Gershman said.

Photos: In 1923, Yankee Stadium under construction, above, and, right, in an aerial photograph with the Polo Grounds in the background.; In 1912, Ebbets Field under construction, above, and, left, during a day game against the Chicago Cubs in the 1950's. (Photographs from "Diamonds: The Evolution of the Ballpark" (Houghton Miflin)